Book of False Innocence
by Rikulaw
Summary: A collection of slice-of-life-ish oneshots. T for language and some hint of dark and gory theme. AU
1. Summer: Horror Story

This chapter is inspired by the novel Hibi. It's kinda AU-ish since I tweaked the event to fit the theme. After Aogiri arc, instead of missing for 6 months and ended up like the current story, Kaneki have the talk with Yoshimura-san and decided to resume his pseudo-normal live after missing for 3 months. And the time is set before Touka's birthday, but after the beginning of school year, which means around the end of spring or the beginning of summer. That's why I assumed Touka is still 16. No beta, so prepared for some (or a lot of) grammar miss.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters in any way.

* * *

**ー Summer ****ー**

**Horror Story**

**Summary: **Touka want a horror story, but what is considered as scary for ghouls? Maybe something about food?

**Featured Character: **Kaneki Ken, Kirishima Touka, Fueguchi Hinami

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「Ghoul」is a monstrous species that eats human flesh. It was said that the ghouls are disguised as human and living among them. Maybe that's why no one ever saw them let alone proofs their existence. The only proof that such creatures exists are the victims and CCG – The Commission of Counter Ghoul.

Because of their diet, humans always consider them as some sort of monster or ghost that often appears in horror stories. No one know that actually the ghouls are very similar compared to them. Not that they will admit it even if they know. Even ghouls have something they love. Something they will gladly trade their cursed life with. And sometime, they even troubled by some silly things.

"Oi!"

Kirishima Touka, 16 years old female ghoul, a senior at Kiyomi High School, and a waitress at 「Anteiku」coffee shop. If someone has to point her most recognizable feature it's her black semi-long hair with blue tint that cover her right eye and a rude yet shy nature. A typical tsundere, only a lot stronger since she can send you straight to hospital in one punch.

"At least call me with my name, you know."

Kaneki Ken, 19 years old male half-ghoul, a second year at Kamii University, and a waiter at 「Anteiku」coffee shop. After his 3 months disappearance, the manager manage to persuade him into resuming his pseudo-human live. Thanks to his long absence from university, he had to redo some class in short semester, which he pass quite easily and continuing to his second year normally.

Normally, except for his –formerly black- white hair. They agreed to paint his nails back but he refused to dye his hair for some reason. "I'll look ridiculous if I forgot to re-dye it when it grew" was what he said, but the others think that's not all. Beside the hair, he also got a completely different set of expression now in addition of his fit and slightly muscular body. He used to have this innocence aura around him. He looks very happy when he laughed, his frown always looks more like a pout, and he's not intimidating even when he's extremely angry. Now he has an actual frown for his default expression, could be very intimidating even if he didn't angry, and his smile always looks so sad. Beside that, he's the same Kaneki Ken that they first know on the inside. For most of the time.

"After work, stay for a bit."

With that Touka turned away from him. Kaneki feel a bit of déjà vu from this. He remembers having a similar conversation with her in the past.

_If I remember correctly, that was when she had a disagreement with Yoriko-chan _

That time he smiled and said "Okay" but this time he could only opened his mouth a bit and nod with his neutral expression.

_Am I really changed that much?_

It's not like he didn't want to smile and give her an actual answer. He just didn't feel to do it. When he thought about that, Touka already turned away. At least he still didn't ask her for reason. Just like before.

_I wonder what it's about_

Although he didn't ask the reason, it didn't mean he's not curious. Touka is a very proud girl. She won't ask him of all people to deal with her personal problem if it's not that serious.

_It's not about those Doves, right?_

He keeps himself wondering inside until the café closed. After a short "Good work" from the manager, Yoshimura-san, they start cleaning the cups and tables when the front door of the now closed café opened.

"Good evening!"

A young girl came in with a large scary-looking man, and another 3 young men. The girl, Fueguchi Hinami is an orphan ghoul who lived with Kaneki and already considered as his (and Touka's) younger sister. She often came to 「Anteiku」before the opening time or after the closing time. Most of the time for another appointment (shopping to some bookstore) with Kaneki or just want to meet with her beloved big sister Touka. The other guys was there to escort Hinami as Kaneki never allowed Hinami to go out by herself.

"Ah, Hinami-chan. What is it today? Another appointment with Kaneki-sama?" Roma, the newest waitress and an assumed fan of Kaneki greeted her.

"Roma-chan, would you please stop with that –sama thing?" Kaneki weakly protest with a troubled look. He tried not to sound too mean to the girl like he always did to Tsukiyama. Roma pouted with a whinny "buuttt….." in response.

"Yeah. I already finished the book we bought the other day. So today big brother Kaneki will take me to the bookstore again." Hinami beamed at her.

"Ah! About that, Hinami-chan. Looks like Touka-chan want to talk with me for a bit. Could you wait?" Kaneki approached her and crouched so he's in her eye level.

"Of course!" Hinami smiled at him.

"I'm sorry Hinami-chan. I don't know that you guys want to go to a bookstore today." Touka looked at her, feeling guilty. It's true that she didn't know but she never wanted to disappoint her. Despite her usual stern self, she really doted this little sister of her after all.

"It's really okay! If we didn't get to go to the bookstore today, I still could pick some books from big brother Kaneki's shelf!" Hinami assured her. Kaneki looked a bit surprised at this, but he already guessed that sooner or later, Hinami will lay her hand at his shelf; after all they have a similar taste in book. Not that he mind. He didn't hide anything inappropriate anyway.

"Now I think about it, we're pretty much free except for the cleaning. Do you want to talk about it now or should we wait until we can have a private talk?" Kaneki asked Touka. Touka looked around and thinking for a moment before answering.

"No, now's fine." She picked back the cloth and began to wipe the table again before continuing.

"I want to ask, what human usually did in summer?" Touka quietly said while glancing around. A hint of pink in her cheek.

"Usually they go to sea to swim or split some watermelon or go to the pool for a swim. Other than that, maybe a festival or watching fireworks with some friends." Kaneki answering without missing a beat. He stopped wiping the table for a moment before adding. "Ah, maybe a test of courage or telling some scary stories."

"Test of courage?" Touka stopped her work and looking at Kaneki questioningly.

"Walking around at night in some supposed to be haunted place to retrieve something before going back to the start point. Usually in a pair. Some of the time there's some people dressed as a ghost waiting to scare you." Kaneki answering while wiping the table.

"Humans sure did a lot of stupid thing." Another voice said.

"Nishio-san, you're listening too." Kaneki answered.

Nishio Nishiki is another waiter at the café and Kaneki's senior in Kamii by a year. He's a foul-mouthed ghoul with a human girlfriend who know his true nature.

"Swimming, festival, watching firework, test of courage, and horror stories huh…. It's not a problem, but horror story could be a bit problem." Touka thinking the answer.

"Why do you want to know that, big sister." Hinami asked. If anyone else asked, she'll easily answer with "Shadup" or "Not your business", but this is Hinami. She got no choice but to answer.

"It's…. almost the time for field-trip. I can't afford going alone with a herd of humans alone for more than a day. Usually I use some excuse to get away, but this year….." Touka averted her gaze with a slight blush. She didn't have to say that this is the last chance she has to go to a field-trip and she wanted to go at least once.

"Enough about this!" she snapped. "Oi, Kaneki! You like to read books right? Give me some scary story!" Touka demanded.

Kaneki freeze after a second. After stopping for a moment, he let go of the cloth and folded his arms. After a while he also closed his eyes (or eye as he wears eye-patch) and burrowed his eyebrow. Everyone stopped their work to look at him curiously.

"Hey, Kaneki. What's wrong? You don't have any horror story?" Banjou, the large man is the first one to break the silence and actually ask him.

"Ah, no. I have a lot of horror stories. Or used to. Now when I think about it again, it's not scary at all." Kaneki answered.

"Maybe because you already used to do a lot of scary things yourself?" Irimi, another waitress, chimed in.

"Ah… I know that feeling. It's like you used to be scared when walking alone at night, but you got used to do that when growing up." Koma, another waiter, nodded to himself.

"Maybe…." Kaneki considering the reason.

"It's not good. I need an actually scary story for when it comes to telling them in the field-trip. How about the rest of you guys?" Touka asked the other in a serious manner.

"I don't think I have any." Irimi answered first.

"Not me too." Koma answered next.

"I don't have any too." Roma answered.

"Why the hell I have to be scared on some fictional thing?" Nishiki annoyed.

"I'm sorry, big sister. I don't think I have one too." Hinami answered apologetically.

"I think I have some" Banjou answered next.

"Nah, Banjou-san is scared on a lot of thing. I doubt it's actually scary." One of his follower, Sante, commented while waving his hand in rejection. (Banjou: "What did you say!?")

"Actually, it didn't have to be completely fictional. You can use your personal experience as a base and just make a scary story yourself. Do you have a terrifying experience, Touka-chan?" Kaneki suggested.

"Something terrifying huh…. I think I have." Touka straighten up and looking directly at them.

"Kaneki, you remember the time I went to Zoo with Yoriko, right? When you made a boxed lunch for us." Touka looking at Kaneki who seems a bit tense. The story could make even THAT Touka scared after all.

"After that, we became closer than before. And not long after, she asked me to go to the Themed Park and I accepted." She paused for a moment. "She said that since the last time _I_ made the boxed lunch, this time she should made one for revenge." She looked straight at them, sweating a bit. The others gulped at her tense look.

"That time…. She went overboard and made lunch for 10 people share. Not to mention each of them are fancily decorated and have a strong smell that can rivaled those Chinese restaurant even when the boxes are closed. And for the worse, I could smell them clearly all the time through the trip until _**WE ATE ALL **_of them." Touka sweating and shivered a bit, remembering the experience.

Some of the ghouls present begin to hold their mouth and stomach so they won't puke from imagining the frightening experience that Touka went through. Touka inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm herself.

"Is that scary enough?" She asked.

"Well, it **_sure_ **is scary, but I don't think you could use that." Kaneki sweating a bit. He has to admit that it is kind of scary for the current him. But not for the former, human, him.

"It's not good huh…." Touka holding her chin, trying to recall another frightening experience. Maybe something about birds?

"If it's like that, I think I have one." Hinami raising her hand as to gather attention.

"Shoot." Touka lifted her chin and pay attention to Hinami.

"You see, it happened a month ago. Big brother Kaneki and the others were away for a long time that day, so I decide to read a book while waiting and accidentally fell asleep. Luckily I woke up before they came home looking very tired. After helping them with cleaning and first-aid, I sent them to sleep. After that I went back to my own room and tried to sleep. But Because I just woke up, I couldn't fell asleep again. So I decided to read another book. I lost track of time and when I finished it's already 4 AM. When I'm about went to sleep, I heard a faint sound. I think I didn't notice it before because I'm so absorbed into the book. I quietly went outside the room and heard the sound again. More clearly this time. **_Ton ton_**just like that." Hinami paused for a moment to look at the others. They looked a bit tense.

"I slowly went down to see what caused the sound. At first I think it's just some mice. But the closer I get, the clearer the sound is. The **_ton ton _**sound mixed with another sound like of when someone cutting something with knife. That time I thought '_What if it's a burglar?_' I'm about to wake big brother Kaneki up, but after I remembered how tired he was, I decide to face it myself. So I readied my kakugan and kagune then walk again to the source of sound, the kitchen. When I got there, I took a small peek to the source of sound. There, I see a man cutting something in the counter. When I'm about to attack another thought went to me. '_What if it's not a burglar? What if it's another ghoul that targeting big brother Kaneki, or worse, a dove? Or maybe it's just Tsukiyama-san who tried to surprise big brother Kaneki? He's not stealing anything, so the possibility is high'_ So, for a precaution I sniffed the air, tried to recognize the man. It's turned out that he's….." Hinami paused again.

"He's….." Everyone leaning over to Hinami, repeating the last word. Except for Kaneki. He's thinking something else.

_Wait, I think I heard that story before._ Thought Kaneki.

"Big brother Kaneki. It seems that he's half asleep and his old habit came out as he made a breakfast early in the morning. Now I think about it again, that **_ton ton _**sound is the sound of knife hitting cutting board that I heard when big brother Kaneki making that boxed lunch for big sister Touka." Hinami smiled and raising her right index finger, as to emphasize her point.

The last part of the story triggered a lot of different reaction from the ghouls present. Nishiki openly laughed and saying something like "You really did it this time, shithead Kaneki." Touka, Koma, Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante poorly holding their laughter. Irimi and Roma are holding her laughter too, but better than the other 5. Banjou saying "Something like that did happen." And nodded to himself. And for the said Kaneki….

"I think we're already done with that accident!" He's really embarrassed.

If it's the old Kaneki, his face will definitely as ripe as a tomato with a steam. More than that, maybe he will duck and hid his face somewhere while yelling. But his current reaction is not as good as that. His cheeks are red, but not red enough to be compared with a tomato. His pupil dilated in panic and his voice raised several octaves higher. Not as grand as the old him but funny nevertheless. Especially when the one who did it is his currently cool self.

"Why the hell do you have a cooking ingredient anyway?" Nishiki asked between his laughter.

"So we can pass as an ordinary boarding house anytime in case we have to welcome some human into the house." Kaneki composed himself rather fast, although a hint of red still present in his cheeks.

"That's a masterpiece. So, how about that?" Touka asked after calming down a bit.

"Well, if you left the kakugan-kagune part and the anti-climatic ending, it's a pretty good story. I think you can go with that." Kaneki answering truthfully.

"No. I think I'll keep the ending. It's already good as it is." Touka began to laugh again.

"At least left my name out of that, would you?" Kaneki getting a bit panic again knowing that it's too late to stop her now.

"I'll think about that. But seriously, do you like cooking that much? Yoriko said your cooking was really good. And she's the one who loves and actually skilled when it comes to cooking. Even the guys in my class praised her for that." Touka said while wiping her tear from over-laughing.

"Well, thanks. Actually I don't really like cooking that much. I think it's more like a habit than a hobby. The other one who ever eat my cooking before is Hide. And knowing him, I can't really take his compliment seriously." Kaneki said while scratching his cheek in embarrassment. One could think that he was back to his old self.

"Is big brother Kaneki's cooking really that tasty? I hope I can eat them" Hinami smiled sadly. Noticing this, Touka walked over to her and put a hand in her head. When Hinami looked up to her, she smiled in return before snapping her head in Kaneki's direction with a stern face.

"Oi, Kaneki! If…. If the time when we can eat human's food comes, make sure you cook a plenty. Plenty enough to feed all of us!" Touka exclaimed.

Nishiki turned his head and continued his job while saying "Are you that stupid?" The others just smiled sadly and continuing what they did before. They can't help to wish it even though they know that it's an impossible wish.

"Yeah, if that time comes….." Kaneki answered with a sad smile.

.

.

.

_…__.. If that time ever comes….._

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**A/N **Actually I want to make this into a light story, but it become kinda depressing. The talk between Kaneki and Touka in the first part, Touka having a disagreement with Yoriko and went to zoo together with Kaneki's boxed lunch, Kaneki cooking with Touka and Hinami, Yoriko being praised by the boys in her class and Yoriko praised Kaneki's cooking are actually happened in the Novel 「Hibi」 chapter 2. Actually Touka said that she made the lunch so it's unknown if Kaneki's cooking really that good or Yoriko just praised it in consideration on Touka's feeling.

And for the short semester thing, I don't know if the university in Japan worked like that, but it's definitely possible here, in Indonesia. If you failed a class, you can redo it in short semester. That way, you can resume the class in the full semester normally.

I'm really sorry if Kaneki and Touka went a bit OOC in the end. m(_ _)m


	2. Summer: Yukata

Thank you for the reviews, favs, and follows... even though I don't understand the point of following a oneshot. I'm sorry that I don't reply to the reviews as I don't know what to say except thanks and how glad I am. As a thank you and so the follow won't be pointless, I'm adding another chapter. This one actually should be a long oneshot titled "Yukata and the Summer Festival" but I decided to split it into two individual oneshots since the setting and the timeline will be different. And I decided to change the story into a collection of oneshots so I can add even more story when I feel to.

Kaneki will be (kind of) OOC here. He'll be somewhat a cross between the old Kaneki in the beginning of the story and Sasaki Haise (yes, I am a believer of Sasaki = Kaneki theory). The setting is still the same as the previous chapter and no beta, so prepared for several (or a lot of) grammar miss.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters in any way.

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**ー Summer ****ー**

**Yukata**

****Summary: ****Summer festival means Yukata, right? And every human in Japan know about that outfit, right? So it will be suspicious if Touka don't know how to wear one.

**Featured Character: **Kaneki Ken, Kirishima Touka, Nishio Nishiki

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Kirishima Touka is troubled. She's debating whichever if she should ask him or not. He's the only one she can thought to help her with this problem. Maybe that's why she can't help but glancing towards him every now and then. And everyone noticed that.

"What's the matter, Touka-chan?" Kaneki Ken, the person in question, finally give in to his own curiosity.

"Well, that's…. No. Nothing. I doubt even you can help me on this." She sighing after reaching the conclusion that he can't help her.

"You should give me a chance you know? Maybe I could help or find someone who can help." Kaneki said with a purposely false angry tone and pout.

It's been 3 months after he re-joined them at Anteiku. He finally managed to get rid of that solemn look and opened up towards them even more than before. Before the whole Aogiri affair, he was kind and sometime straightforward. But he was polite, shy, and caution as if he was afraid to anger them, to be hated by them. But now he's a lot less shy and polite. He can even rudely complaining. Not to mention a lot more expressive. She noted that this side of Kaneki was something that was reserved for his best friend, Nagachika Hideyoshi. She was secretly happy that he already put them on the same level as his own life-time best friend. Until the day of her birthday.

A few days before her birthday, he said that he caught Dr. Kanou's tail and going to investigate it immediately. Yes, he rejoined Anteiku, but it doesn't means he stopped doing that personal investigation of him. Several days later, a day before her birthday, she heard from Hinami that he obliterated the Ghoul Restaurant while doing the investigation, slaughtering more than 50 attending ghouls himself. She knew that he hated the restaurant and after the Aogiri affair, she can easily imagine him slaughtering those ghouls. What surprised her was his reaction when she asked him about that at her birthday.

At first she expected him to complain about how he actually hated killing people…. no, scratch that. Those terrible ghouls are not "people" to him anymore. Maybe how he hated them because they kept playing on the life of innocent or how loud they were or how troublesome it is to chase and kill them all or how pathetic they were or… coldly told her that those bugs deserved to be killed in a cruel way and explaining the gruesome death he give them. For her, the last one is way better since she can relate. Even the thought that he will gleefully told her how they die in Rize-like style could cheer her up.

But no, he didn't. He just admitted it nonchalantly with a smile as it was not a big deal. He just passed the couple dozen of ghouls' life just like when one would pass a road and complained how Madam A run away with a pair of twin that has Rize's kagune just like him. From what she can see, those ghouls aren't even a bug to him. Bug could be hard to kill. Some collecting bugs and some kept bugs as pet. But no, they're lower than bugs. A weed. The only trouble a weed can give is to exist. Some just let them be because it is troublesome. But it will got ridden of when one feel like to.

That was when she understood. He is already beyond salvation. 3 months ago, he was still balancing his outer human with his inner ghoul so neither would be broken. It was unsteady but still balanced for sure. While it kept him from being happy, it also kept him from being insane. But she just has to told him to get rid of that solemn face. Again. And again. So get rid of it he did. In exchange of getting back his outer kind personality, the inside became rotten. She felt responsible for it at first. But then again, it doesn't matter how he treat other as long as he still kind to them, especially Hinami.

In the end she decided that she don't see anything abnormal about him.

"No, forget it." Touka refused.

"Now, don't play hard on me and tell me what's bothering you." Kaneki scowled and put his hands on his hip. If there anything (_else_) changed about him, it's his mother-like attitude that managed to slip out from time to time. Maybe it's because he has to take care of his little group as Banjou and his three lackey can't be relied on while putting Tsukiyama on his place at the same time.

If he was the him 3 months ago, he will more like teacher and leader to his own group. The impression gradually changed to more of a stern (and scary when angered) mother as he regain more and more of his human personality. At least Hinami is happier this way.

Sighed, Touka giving up on refusing him. No one can defy him on his mother-mode (except maybe the manager). Not even the Demon Ape Koma Enji. Even the bastard Nishio Nishiki wavered. Irimi Kaya who was once known as the Black Hound never crossed him in the first place. Nor Roma who played the "mother's daughter" role to avoid from being the target of his mother-mode.

"You know, it's about Yoriko. She's… inviting me out to a summer festival next week." Touka admitted.

"And then?" Kaneki asked as he still can't see the problem.

"Well, I…" Touka glanced sideway.

"You?" Kaneki pressed more.

"... don't know how to wear a yukata." She said with a small voice.

"... that's all?" Kaneki asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"WHAT!? YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!?" Touka yelled to hide her own embarrassment.

"No. No. No. I don't have any problem at all. Yeah." Kaneki waved his hands in front of his face. Now he's out from his mother-mode, he easily taken aback at her not-so-sudden outburst.

"Even I know that men's and women's Yukata are different. Even if you know how to wear yours, it doesn't mean that you know how to wear mine. I bet you don't have any female human friend, and I know I'm right so there's nothing you can do." Touka dismissed him and turning away.

"Why won't you tell Yoriko-chan?"

"Huh? If I told her, she would get suspicious you know."

"But, a high school girl not knowing how to wear yukata is pretty common you know?"

"What? Really?" Touka's anger disappeared completely as she thought how normal she is.

"Yeah." Kaneki nodded. "When I was in high school, I often overheard girls in my class talking how they can't wear a yukata and asked their friend to help them."

"A… ahaha… haha… I see. I guess I'll ask Yoriko then." Touka nervously laughed in relief and embarrassment at how she troubled by a completely normal thing.

After that, the conversation ended until the shop closed. Touka went off early to do her homework while Kaneki asked the manager to give him some time off for a couple of days before went off along with Hinami.

Not too long after, a young woman came in. She has a fairly light brown colored hair and a pretty face. She wears a fur jacket along with fitting jeans.

"Nishiki-kun! Let's go home." She called.

Nishiki, who finished changing out of his waiter uniform, got out from the staff room looking bored along with another staff, Irimi. He was about to left with his human girlfriend, Nishino Kimi, before stopping just before he opened the front door.

"Hey, Kimi. Do you know how to wear a yukata?" Nishiki suddenly asked.

"Yeah, I know. And I have one too. Do you want me to wear a yukata?" Kimi innocently asked.

"No, I just want to know."

"Are ghouls not wearing yukata?" Kimi asked, and Nishiki just shrugged in answer. She turn her head at Irimi who is preparing to leave too.

"It depends on the person, just like humans. I myself own a yukata and know how to wear it too." Irimi, who had gone to stock more coffee bean at the time of Touka's outburst, smiled.

"I see. Then why do you want to know, Nishiki-kun?" Kimi asked again.

"No reason. Just thinking about the summer festival that will be held soon." Nishiki smiled. He won't tell the damn rabbit about it. No, maybe he'll tell her. After the summer festival was over that is.

* * *

**A/N** It's kind of short and I didn't intended to put Touken fluff, it just naturally become like that. And in case someone didn't notice, Kaneki is (or was) using less polite word with even less polite tone when talking to Hide compared to when he's talking to Touka and his other "friends". And he openly complained when Hide insulted his choice of date place when he kept the complain to himself when Touka kept kicking him on top of coming late (maybe because of the fear of Touka, but I like to think that it's just the way he is). And Nishiki is such a lovely bastard lol

I'll try to finish the Summer Festival within a week.


	3. Summer: Festival

I'm sorry it got delayed for too long. I've been pretty busy IRL so I kind of forget about this and work on something else. Really-really sorry. Thank you for Delta Marauder for reminding me. And another thanks for guest for pointing that out. I rushed this one pretty much so I didn't really check the grammar again, but at least now I know where I should start. And another thanks again for everyone who read this story and leave some review/favs/follow.

This one got pretty long and I don't even know what it is about anymore. And no beta. Be prepared for or a lot of grammar miss. Please do tell me if there's any mistake! (But I'm hopeless at grammar...) PS: Halo juga for NollyLvn~ lol

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters in any way.

* * *

**ー Summer ****ー**

**Festival**

**Summary: **Kaneki is still depressed post the Raid of Kanou's Lab and Hinami want to do something about it. They meet a unusual person there.

**Featured Character: **Kaneki Ken, Fueguchi Hinami, Amon Koutarou, Tsukiyama Shuu

* * *

That morning, Tokyo was adorned with a strange scene. A girl around middle school age was seen walking in front of one large macho man with strange beard and another 3 men with jacket and hood. The strange girl is usually seen during morning or late evening with those 4 strange men or an unusual young man with white hair. On some rare moment, one could see her walking around in the city with a handsome man with bright colored hair. If there anything similar about the men accompanying her, it would be the aura that scream "mess with her, and you die". That's when the rumors started. One theory said the mysterious girl is a rich lady or even a princess. Another theory said the mysterious girl is a sole daughter of some local Yakuza clan. In the end, no one has the guts to ask her or her "bodyguards". Stalk her is out of the question because that will be a death wish.

Fueguchi Hinami, the famous mysterious girl is walking hastily with a determined face towards your friendly neighbor cafe, Anteiku. Usually she would walk slowly while talking with her "bodyguards" with a dreamy face. The people of Tokyo who fortunate or unfortunate enough to saw that scene could only hope that no blood will be shed. With a clack and ring from the front door, the girl step into the cafe.

"Welcome. We're sorry, we still in pre… Hinami-chan?" A dark blue haired waitress greet her. "Kaneki is still not here if you're asking him."

"Yes, I know. Big brother is still not feeling well. He's resting in his room today."

"What? He's still not recovered yet?" The waitress, Kirishima Touka ask her. Kaneki Ken, the white haired 'Big Brother' of the mysterious girl has been absent from the cafe for a while now.

"Well, it should be a shock for him. Hell, even I was scared to death in that instant." Said the large (strange) bearded man, Banjou Kazuichi.

"Even though it is expected from Banjou-san, I do have to admit that it was sure scary." One of the hooded men, Jirou make fun of the larger man while agreeing with the said man. Banjou frowning in response.

"Um… That is the reason I'm here, actually. Big sister, can you come to our house after work to cheer him up? Flower man give him some books and I went to a signing of our favorite author with him but it seems like he's still depressed over the incident." Hinami bow her head low to hide her overly concerned face.

"I don't know if I could cheer him up. I don't like books like you guys do and I have to admit that I already lost the power to (literally) kick some sense into that thick skull of his. On top of that, I don't have enough verbal skill to talk him out of that damned episode of his." Touka slump to the counter. Thinking about her lack of skill on words reminds her of the upcoming entrance test for university. Aside from Hinami's concern, she really has to do something about that white haired bastard or she'll lost her prefered tutor since studying with that shit Nishiki never been anywhere near peaceful and she'll never manage to enroll to such high leveled university like Kamii with her own academic skill.

Sighing, Touka place her hand on top of Hinami's head and continue "I'll see what I can do. But I can't come today, I have a promise with Yoriko tonight."

"To the festival?" Hinami lift her head and face Touka.

"Yeah. Hey, why won't you take him there too? I heard from Yoriko that it is a fun place. Maybe he'll cheer up with the festival atmosphere."

"But I don't have a yukata…"

"Try asking that shittyama. He will gladly buy you one if it's for Kaneki."

"Flower man? I wonder… Thank you big sister! I'll try asking big brother anyway with or without yukata." Hinami stand up and bow down to her beloved big sister before proceeding to leave the shop.

"Tell me if he's still depressed. I'll come over tomorrow." Touka call her out.

"Okay."

Hinami and the others left the cafe and heading towards their house. They take a train from 20th ward (which makes a lot people wonder why the little yakuza princess won't take a car) and got off in 7th ward before proceeding to walk their way toward the 6th ward. On their way from 7th ward, they see a man with bright purple hair in front of a flower shop.

"Ah, flower man!" Hinami call out to the man.

The said man, Tsukiyama Shuu turned his head at her and smiled. "_Bonjour_, little lady. I didn't expect to see you outside with Kaneki-kun still locking himself inside his room. I guess Banjoy did accompany you." He smiled slyly towards the man who exclaimed "I'm not Banjoy!" and continue. "May I know what a fair lady like you doing here?"

"I just got back from Anteiku. Big brother is still depressed, so I'm consulting with big sister Touka about it."

Tsukiyama make a slight annoyed smile at the mention of 'Touka', but he still smiled anyway. If he fell out of favor from this little lady, he'll fell out of favor from Kaneki. "And then?"

"She suggested that we take him to the festival. But I wonder if it will go well without yukata." Hinami make a slight sad smile.

"Then, how about we go to buy them now? I'm sure Kaneki-kun will be pleased. I'll pay for it, of course." Tsukiyama wink his eye and stand up on his full height.

"Is it really okay? I mean, you already pay a lot for us and we can't make you pay more for unneeded things."

"It's not an unneeded thing. Kaneki-kun like to see you happy and I like to see Kaneki-kun happy. I'll even buy you a furisode if it could make you happy."

If one ask Kaneki about this, he'll surely say that Tsukiyama only doing his usual sweet talk. But as of lately, one could wonder if it's truly a lie or not.

"Furisode?" Hinami tilt her head at the new word.

"It's a formal kimono. But I guess you won't need it until you're 20."

Hinami take a note to ask Kaneki for the kanji and write them down later.

"Thank you." Hinami bow down to the man. Banjou cleary make an annoyed face at this. Just like their leader, he still don't trust this man.

"_Je t'en prie_, you're welcome. Shall we go?" Tsukiyama smiled once again before turning away to lead the way.

It took them a while to search for a shop and browse the collection. In the end, they got a pale yellow yukata with clover pattern that got a darker color towards the bottom for Hinami, a striped dark blue yukata for Banjou, and a plain dark grey yukata for Kaneki (they don't want to know how the hell Tsukiyama know Kaneki's size). The other three said that they didn't need any while Tsukiyama himself didn't pick anything either.

Half hour later, they arrived in the sharehouse and currently sitting in the couch. Hinami slapping both of her cheek and running to Kaneki's room. After a few knock, a quite "come in" come from inside. Hinami slowly turn the door knob and entering the room. She immediately focused her sight on the white haired young man who is laying down in his side while reading a book. Shifting her eyes a bit, Hinami can see a stack of book near the bed.

"Bi- big brother." Hinami called out to him.

The young man, Kaneki turning his head just enough to see the one who entered his room. After realizing it's Hinami, he put a bookmark on his book and place it on top of the stacked books. He then sit up, still not leaving his bed, and motioned Hinami to come over. Hinami hastily run up to the side of the bed and fidgeting a bit. Confused by her strange action, he asked with a smile.

"What's wrong, Hinami-chan?"

"U-um, big brother. Do you want to come to the festival with everyone tonight?"

"Sure. Do you have any yukata? Or should we buy a new one now?" Kaneki asked her, smile still intact.

"I already have one. To be honest we just bought one. I'm sorry we didn't invite you. Flower man said that we should keep the surprise. But we bought one for you too." Hinami explained. Kaneki seems to be surprised for a moment before chuckling.

"Eh? Are you mad? I'm really really sorry." Hinami hastily apologized.

"No, not that." Kaneki, still chuckling, pat her head to assure her. "It's just, you don't have too. Guys did not usually wears yukata, you see. I guess I never explained this one."

"A-ahh…" Hinami blushed and bow her head to hide her embarrassment. She didn't knew. "I'm sorry. I didn't knew. You don't have to wear it."

"No, I'll wear it. You guys pick it up for me afterall. Guys not usually wear yukata, but it doesn't mean that no guys wear yukata." Kaneki continue to pat her head. Hinami lift her head and in that moment, her eyes meet with his. Kaneki flash a sincere smile and muttering a warm "Thank you."

Hinami lost her word at a simple word of gratitude. Her mouth can't form any respond. So she put on her best smile for her beloved big brother. Kaneki smiled back in return and lift his hand from Hinami's head.

"It's already this late. We should get preparing soon." Kaneki got off from the bed and stretch his body. Hinami lift her head and take a look at a nearby clock. Sure it's already 5 PM. Kaneki walks toward the door and Hinami follows him. After a few steps Hinami stops.

"Big brother..."

Kaneki stops as well and slowly turns around to face her.

"I don't know how to wear a yukata..."

Kaneki walks toward Hinami slowly. He then bent down a little and place his hand on her head again.

"Then how about visiting the shop where you bought the yukata. I'm sure the staff will gladly help you."

"Eh? But..."

At first Kaneki confused at her hesitation, but then he remember that Hinami is actually a pretty shy girl. She's always so cheerful that he forgets.

"Um... I read how to wear women's yukata in a book before. If you cover yourself properly I think I can manage. That is if you want me to." Kaneki nervously asked. That is the only solution he can think at the moment since Hinami doesn't want a stranger to dress her up.

"Yes, please." said Hinami with a smile and a single nod.

It took him a while to get Hinami dressed up. Hinami cover herself with the yukata as she was told and Kaneki do the rest. He make sure just to touch Hinami only if necessary. Teaching Banjou to wear his yukata is another challenge. Men's yukata sure is easier to wear than women's yukata, but it's still awkward to see Banjou only in his underwear. The unexpected thing is how hard for him to dress himself. It's not like he doesn't know how to. It's keeping Tsukiyama out from his room that he finds the trouble to do. The ghoul only want to eat him at first, but lately he's been nothing but a normal (and nasty, Kaneki added) pervert.

It's already a half past six when they finished preparing. In the end, only Kaneki, Hinami, and Banjou who wears yukata. Ichimi, Jirou, and Sante wears their casual clothes while Tsukiyama wears his usual formal suit.

"It's already a bit late. We should get going now." Kaneki extends his hand to Hinami who take it almost too immediately.

The trip to the shrine didn't take long since Tsukiyama insisted that they took his car. Kaneki was about to decline, but since it's already late, he decide to take the offer.

As soon as they arrived in front of the shrine stairs, Hinami leap out from the car and begin to look around (just like the others who looked at her and the car. Some confirmed that she is indeed a yakuza princess within their heart). Kaneki descent slowly from the car and call out to Hinami.

"Hinami-chan! Don't go too far from the others."

"Okaaay"

She returned to the group a bit after they all got off from the car and walk alongside with her big brother towards the shrine. After a short climb on the shrine's long stairs, they arrived on the festival site.

"Hey, big brother! What is that?" Hinami pointing to one of stall that have pink stuff attached to a stick.

"That would be cotton candy. It's fluffy and supposed to be sweet." Explain Kaneki.

"May I have one?"

"Sure." Kaneki walk to the stall, buy one of the cotton candy, and offer it to Hinami.

"Here. But you may only look at it and don't try to eat…" Before Kaneki even finished his sentence, Hinami bit the cotton candy which still in Kaneki's hand.

"It taste strange…" Said Hinami while covering her mouth.

"Ahaha what an unruly little lady." Tsukiyama bent down and wipe Hinami's mouth. While everyone's attention drawn towards Hinami's sudden action, Kaneki pick a little bit of the cotton candy and have a taste of it himself. It taste like what he could define as… a genuine cotton. Not as disgusting as the other foods, but not edible either.

"Here. And don't try to eat it again." Kaneki hands the cotton candy to Hinami again.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have asked for food." Hinami bow down and apologized.

"It's okay, we have to buy some food to blend with the crowd anyway. Just don't eat it carelessly, okay?"

"Okay."

They strolling around for a while until Hinami sniffed out the air and begin running towards the crowd.

"Big Sister Touka!" Hinami hug the unsuspecting ghoul with one hand as the other hand still holding her cotton candy.

"Hinami!" Touka called back.

"Touka-chan, who is this?" Call out a soft voice from beside Touka.

"Ah, Yoriko. This is Hinami. She's… a daughter of a close acquaintance of mine. Hinami, this is Yoriko, my classmate." Touka introduce the two.

"Nice to meet you." Hinami bow her body to Yoriko.

"My, what a polite girl. Nice to meet you too."

"Hey, Hinami. Where's Kaneki? You came with him right?" Asked Touka.

"Ah, yeah. Big brother is…" Hinami tried to explain before a loud voice cut her.

"Hinami-chan!" Kaneki appeared from the crowd and walked hastily toward the girl.

"Don't run off by yourself!" Kaneki lightly scold her.

"I'm sorry. I got excited when I saw big sister Touka." Hinami apologized.

"As long as you understand." Kaneki smiled at her before facing the other two girls and greet them.

"Good evening, Touka-chan, Yoriko-chan."

"hmmph." Touka rudely answer.

"Go-good evening. Uh… ummm….?" Yoriko hesitantly greeted back.

"My name is Kaneki Ken, Touka-chan's co-worker. Nice to meet you, Yoriko-chan. Ah, I'm sorry for suddenly calling you with your first name. To be honest, I never heard your surname from Touka-chan."

"Ni-nice to meet you too. I don't mind, please call me Yoriko. But for your information, my surname is Kosaka. Kosaka Yoriko."

"Ah, it's nice to finally meet you in person, Yoriko-chan." Kaneki take a better look at Yoriko starting from her bob-styled blonde hair, her round face, her lime green yukata, the takoyaki in her hand and some other foods in a plastic bag. Kaneki then move on to Touka's hand which holding a half eaten takoyaki and moved up to her violet yukata and then to her slightly pleading face. Kaneki sighing for a bit and put on a smile. Well, Touka needs help.

"Thank you for taking care of Touka-chan." Kaneki bow to Yoriko which startled the girl.

"Me too. Thank you for taking care of Touka-chan." Yoriko bowed back. Meanwhile Touka feel pretty annoyed for being treated like a kid even though she understand that Kaneki is trying to help her from this food hell.

"And Touka-chan. I know this is festival, but don't eat too many, okay? You just got sick a couple days ago, and you can't work if you puke too much tomorrow. If you feel sick, there's a medicine in the cabinet."

Touka looks at Yoriko and feel guilty for being relieved at Yoriko's guilty face. But with this she can push her food consumption to a bare minimum naturally. But still, that guy treated her like a kid too much. Time for a little revenge.

"Okay moooom." Touka feel triumphant at Kaneki's annoyed face even though it only lasted for a split second.

"Okay then, let's go Hinami-chan."

"Eeehh? Why can't we enjoyed the festival with big sister Touka and big sister Yoriko?" Hinami whined. Kaneki smiled a bit and put his hand on Hinami's head.

"Hinami, we shouldn't barge into other people's date just like that. It's impolite." Kaneki softly explained.

"Eh?" "Wha!?" Yoriko and Touka surprised by Kaneki's explanation.

"I understand. We should let them enjoy the festival just the two of them." Said Hinami with a pair of sparking eyes.

"That's the good girl. Let's go, everyone is waiting." Kaneki pulled Hinami's hand and walks towards the crowd.

"Later then, big sister Touka. Please enjoy your date." Said Hinami with a loud voice which make a lot of bystander turned their attention towards the pair of girl.

"Wha- wait!" Touka tried to stop them, but they already disappeared into the crowd.

"What an interesting pair of acquaintance." Said the blonde girl, for the lack of better words.

"That shithead… I'll kill him later."

"But, Touka-chan. You should tell me that you feel unwell. We can go to the festival any other day when you already feel better."

"It's okay. I promised you anyway." _Besides if I come "healthy" I'll be surely went back home sick._ Thought Touka

"But it's a shame that you can't eat too much. Umm Touka-chan. I know this is a bit selfish, but can you stay a bit longer? I'll promise that I will make up for the food later."

"Sure. You don't have to make up for anything." _Or rather, please don't. _Touka plead in the deep of her mind.

"Thank you, Touka-chan." Said Yoriko with a smile. They walk around the festival while chatting some random things.

"By the way, Touka-chan. Isn't Kaneki-san the guy who was in you room before? You said his name was Kaneki."

Touka stared at her. She didn't expect Yoriko to remember about that little incident. To be honest, she's the one who forgot about that.

"Yeah, he was."

"I don't mean to be rude, but wasn't he had a tidy black hair before? Why did he dye it to white? Not that he looks bad on it though… It's just really unusual."

Touka thinking for a moment for a response. She remember that Kaneki often asked with the same question. Mostly by his 'acquaintance' that happen to visit Anteiku.

_What was his excuse again?_ "Actually it was an accident. The doctor said it was a head trauma and mental stress that caused his hair to turn white. He was attending college back then so he dye it black again. But he stopped dying it as it was getting troublesome to dye it once in a while ever since he took a temporary leave so he just go along with the white hair. And the manager thinks it is okay since that unusual hair of him somehow attracts more customer."

"I see. So he attends college… Which college? Is he graduated? He doesn't look that old even with that white hair."

"He went to Kamii University. Two years ahead."

"Kamii? That high-leveled university you trying to get in? Since he take a temporary leave, then he will a year ahead from you, right?"

"Yeah, that Kamii. And no, he took extra class and manage to catch on. So he is still two years ahead."

"I wonder why he took a temporary leave in the first place. There's a lot of people struggling to get in while he just come and go like that."

Now she think about it, that guy really getting into her nerves. He leave just like that while she has to struggle really hard to get in. And he manage to catch on the curriculum on top of that. She looked at Yoriko and studied her face. She can just act dumb and go on, but she want to tell her. She's not sure why, but she doesn't want Yoriko to think bad about Kaneki. It won't hurt to tell her how admirable he is as long as she keep it short, adding some half-truths, and don't mention anything about ghoul.

"He's taking care of Hinami. She's an orphan just like me and him. He's working to pay off some basic necessities and teach Hinami in his free time. Hinami never went to school, you see. Besides now his 'family' getting a bit bigger, doing house chores took him more time so he said he doesn't have any time to attend classes, but Hinami persuade him into going to the university again. I'm surprised that he can attend class, doing projects, work, teach, cook, cleaning, doing laundry, shopping, and still have a time to read that stack of books, tutoring me, and worrying about almost everyone's health. He even make quite some money and went ahead to stock the medicines in my cabinet. I won't be surprised if his current life goal is to make Hinami attend school normally."

"Touka-chan." Yoriko call out to her dark blue haired friend before she could blab more.

"What?"

"Are you sure you're talking about Kaneki-san?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Why is that?"

"I don't know. He just doesn't look like a person who did things like that." With that messy white hair and black nails, most of the people will think that he is some kind of delinquent or something in line of that. Including Yoriko. "By the way you talk about him, it sounds like you're talking about a mother." Yoriko laugh softly, half expecting Touka to blab a lot more of her _boyfriend_'s manly side.

"I'm only half kidding when I call him mom, you know." Is not what Yoriko expecting. But if what Touka said true, it does make sense.

"I guess I can see why. It's a relief that he actually looked pretty manly."

Of course. If he looked like a girl on top of that, there will be a lot of man who step in the road of darkness. Then again, Touka is not too sure.

_I wonder about that…_

* * *

"Aaachooo!" Kaneki sneezed loudly.

"A cold?" A worried Hinami asked.

"I don't think so. Maybe someone blowing an unpleasant rumour about me." And it can't be helped since he did a lot of horrible thing to a lot of horrible -not- person.

"Should we go home?"

"No, I'm okay. We still have to search for the others anyway." He told them to wait at the gate when he went ahead to chase after Hinami. But they're not there when he came back. While it could be simple if he just call, he actually feel ashamed when he finds out that his phone battery died. Looks like he was that depressed to forget to charge his phone. So they walked around the festival area, looking here and there in search of their companion.

"Hey, big brother. What is that?" While enjoying the festival of course. The stall Hinami pointed out doesn't have food or games. It's just a simple stall with a lot of mask hanging with a lot of different shapes and color.

"They're selling mask. It's pretty common for a mask stall to be in a festival. Of course it's different from _Uta-san's mask_ but it serve its purpose for having fun. Do you want one?"

"May I?"

"Of course."

Hinami run to the stall and begin looking this and that. It seems like she's having a hard time choosing one.

"Big brother, which one you think more cute?" Hinami held out two mask to Kaneki. One mask is a tea colored cat while the other one is a caramel colored dog.

"I don't know. Maybe the cat?"

"Then I'll be having the cat. And this one is for big brother!" Hinami pulled a white fox mask with red eyes and hand it to Kaneki.

"Fox?"

"I saw it in the comic book before and I think it's cool. Beside it's the only white mask that match your hair. You don't like it?"

"No, I like it. I just wondered why fox. Thank you, Hinami."

Hinami beamed a bright smile at Kaneki and he do think that it's worth really much if it can make Hinami smiles. He paid for the masks and give the cat one to Hinami who immediately wears it in her face. Kaneki himself doesn't really feel to wear a mask, so he just put it in the side of his head. Hinami then stopped and sniffed the air.

"Big brother! I found them!" Hinami exclaimed excitedly. She pulled Kaneki's hand and run through the crowd. Kaneki mused to himself maybe he should have picked the dog mask. But then he scold himself for comparing Hinami to a dog. Sure enough he could see a bright purple hair from afar. While it is still possible to mistake his white hair with some punk youngster, there's no way one could mistake the gourmet's bright purple hair.

"Flower man! Banjou-san! Ichimi-san, Jiro-san, Sante-san!" Hinami call out to the group.

"Ah little lady. Found you at last." Reply Tsukiyama with a dramatic gesture.

"Why did you go? I said wait for me at the entrance, didn't I?" Kaneki threateningly ask Tsukiyama.

"Dove" The reply come from Banjou who have a grim look on his face. Kaneki's eyes widen and his mouth opened as if he want to say something. But he close it again and calmly think the next action. Who would guess that they would meet a dove at their little trip. If he know this, he should have wear a black wig like Hinami suggested. That way they just can leave by posing as a regular visitor. He regretted his choice to go plainly.

"Tsukiyama-san please buy some yakisoba and apple candy. Banjou-san and Sante-san can get some prize from that ring throwing stall. Ichimi-san and Jiro-kun please get that big white plushie prize from the shooting stall. Hinami-chan can you get some water balloon from that stall?" Kaneki ordered around.

"May I ask for what?" Ask Sante.

"To blend in. Don't mind about that pervert over there, but my white hair really stands out. So I'm thinking to blend in with that plushie. If someone carry the plushie close beside or behind me, it will be harder to notice my white hair. The other merchandise are just for decoration and the food for oblivious reason. We'll split the role on who will be carrying items and who will eating foods." Explain Kaneki.

"Then I'll carry the plushie" Tsukiyama offered the role himself.

"I'll buy some takoyaki over there. Meet me here in half hour." Said Kaneki as he walks away, ignoring Tsukiyama.

* * *

"Please come again."

It's rare for people who work for public safety such as police and ghoul investigator to have some time just for slacking around. But now, Amon Koutarou is spending his night on a festival along with the rest of 20th ward investigators even though he just got separated from the rest of his group and ended up walking alone in the crowd of youth. Since he can' seem to find the rest of his group, he decide to buy himself some taiyaki and walk around the food booth. Maybe he can spot Goori around if he's lucky enough.

The longer he walks around the crowd, the less he could understand younger nowadays. They got a wide range of hair color from bright pink to green hair that fade into blue near the tip, male wearing weird rings and earrings, and some strange color to polish their nail with. For example, the boy with grey yukata in that takoyaki booth. What kind of guy would dye their hair white and nails black.

No. Now that he think about it again, he do know a guy who has white hair and black nails. But there's no way he would be here, in a festival, buying takoyaki. Even though his height is about the same as the last time he saw him with black hair and his posture is somehow similar to the last time he saw him when he went berserk in Kanou's lab. Then the boy, no young man, turned his head towards him a bit. He saw an eyepatch. It's in the wrong side and it's a white medical eyepatch, not his usual black leather eyepatch.

He only can see a bit of his face which covered in that white eyepatch. He tried to take a better look at his face to confirm if the young man is really "him" or not until he remember that he never seen "his" face before. So he decide to get closer and listen to the young man's voice. As he got closer, he could hear him talking with the takoyaki seller as he pay for the takoyaki. His voice is a lot calmer and less sad, but there's no doubt. It's "his" voice.

Before he can think about this carefully, he found himself grabbing the young man's shoulder as he turned to leave. He feel the young man jolt at his sudden touch and turned to look at him a bit before turning away again in a split second. Not enough to see his face clearly, but enough to notice that his single eye has the same color as "his" normal eye. And more than that, the young man recognize him and acknowledge that he realized about him.

"Eyepatch." He test to call him, half expecting the young man to act dumb or release his kagune and run away.

"Can we talk in a more secluded place?"

Amon relaxed his hand and lift it from the young man's shoulder. Taking that as a cue, the young man walked towards the back of the stalls into a darker forest surrounding the shrine where the festival is held on. The young man slide the fox max to his face before turning to him and stand there in silence. Amon assumed that the young man is waiting for him to talk first which he will do.

"What are you doing here?"

"Enjoying festival?" The young man giving him an innocent gesture.

"There's no way a ghoul like you can enjoy a festival. You can't even eat those takoyaki. And what's with that fox max anyway?"

"That's rude. Of course we can't eat the food but we still can enjoy the games and fireworks. And like I said, I came here to enjoy the festival so there's no point to bring my ghoul mask along with me. It's just a chance that I buy this festival mask. And I can eat these takoyaki. It taste gross but I can eat this much."

Amon doesn't have to see his face nor his single face to know that he narrowed his eyes. Sighing in defeat, he decide to believe that the ghoul is only here to enjoy the festival and won't cause any trouble.

"Why the fox mask?"

The ghoul taken aback at his sudden acceptance. Amon can clearly see that the ghoul panicked by how he turn his head left and right as if trying to find someone or something that could cover him. The ghoul stopped looking around and make a move that he assumed as sighing and hung his head low.

"My… my sister said that it suits me."

Amon Koutarou never learned in his 27 years of life that a voice could show so many expressions. For example, just now he can see the blush in the young ghoul's voice even though the mask show absolutely nothing. He do admit that the mask kind of suits him in a weird way even though he still prefer the usual eyepatch mask since it still show an eye that could tell so much things about the ghoul. He secretly glad that he didn't wear a white yukata and begin to glow or become translucent since he will be a spitting image of the fox spirit in that horror movie that his foster father, Donato Porpora, shown to him when he was a child.

He said nothing in return. The ghoul begin to squirm under this awkward silence and looking everywhere but him.

"I always want to ask you something."

The ghoul set his gaze on him, noticing that he broke the silence. He just stand there waiting for him to continue.

"Why did you spare me that day? Why were you crying?"

He feel a hard stare at him from the ghoul as the said ghoul looking up and down at him.

"I don't want to be a murderer." The ghoul simply stated.

"What a nonsense. You're a ghoul, a being that devour human. It's already a common sense that ghouls are murderer." He felt his anger rising.

_Yes, ghoul devour humans by killing them. There's no way for a ghoul to survive without killing human._

The ghoul just laughing softly in return.

"Let me tell you a good thing." The ghoul began.

"I never killed any humans before. So is Fueguchi Ryouko-san and many other ghouls you guys killed before." He leaned back a bit. A gesture he recognize as a mocking smile.

"I wonder who is the murderer here."

Amon is taken aback at the sudden accusation. He grit his teeth and reply.

"Liar. Ghoul has to eat human and to eat means to kill. Or what? do you suggest that there's a lot of cannibalistic ghouls?"

"Well, I'll admit that I'm preying on ghouls. But no, there's only a few cannibalistic ghoul. At least from what I know. Besides that's not the point. I mean there's a lot other way to get human meat without killing them." The ghoul tried to explain.

"Like asking other ghoul to kill for you which is more sickening than going for the kill yourself." Amon retorted sharply.

"Ugh this is getting nowhere." The ghoul massaged his temple through the mask.

"Let's try this. If by a chance no one is able to kill you, will you live forever?"

Amon shut his mouth and think for a while. Of course there's a lot of other things that could end a human's life without being killed like disease, old age, accident, natural disaster, and suicide. But all of death body are taken in by the family and buried or cremated, which means…

"How low are your kind. Do you monsters even know how to respect death people?"

"At least, better than you guys. Seriously, using death ghouls to make weapon to kill ghouls is lower than eating already death human to survive."

Amon narrowed his eyes. He has to admit that this ghoul is sure know how to play with words. At least better than him.

"Lets get back to the point, most of the pacifist ghouls are going with grave digging. I heard that they makes sure to only take a necessary amount and put the grave back like how it is before. And I guess you guys at CCG already considered this before."

Yes, CCG is already aware of the existence of grave digger ghouls since the biggest case of the said kind of ghoul, Kirishima Arata. Even though there's still a missing link on why the cannibalistic kakuja Arata have to go with grave digging if he was preying on ghoul. The investigator in charge hypothesized that Arata was feeding his children as several witness said that he have two children which is unproven even now as the said children of Arata are still not found.

"You said most. What about the rest?"

"I said much enough. Investigating is your job, and I'm not your informant. Try to think about it yourself. You're free to tell your colleagues about this."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I said it before, didn't I? We have to learn more. About humans. And about ghouls. I have several ghoul acquaintance who actually take their time and effort to blend in with humans just to know more about them despite the risk of being killed if they found out. They even go as far as limiting their food to the most minimum amount and spending their time, days and night with human, doing human activities including eating. And I know a human who actually think what it was like to be us and accept us for what we are. I just thought how nice it will be if everyone could think like that."

The ghoul become still after that. It's hard to accept, but the ghoul sounds so sincere. Just like that night. Looking at the ghoul, Amon thought.

_Maybe there's really a way to fix this mistaken world._

"And just for sure, you guys better not causing any commotion here. You already guessed that I'm not the only ghoul here, but I can guarantee that we're here just for the festival. We'll make sure that no one eating anyone here."

"Why should I trust you?"

"You don't have your weapon and we have our kagune."

Amon could recognize him gesturing to someone behind him. So he turn around and see a young girl standing about a meter away from him. The girl has a short brown hair and cat festival mask. Then he move down to her yukata pattern. Clovers.

_Daughter Fueguchi_

He recognize the girl as one of the ghouls who responsible for the death of his superior, Mado Kureo. Forget about his lack of weapon, he's not even sure he can take both of them with his quinque.

Amon weight his option and choose to retreat for now. There's no good in facing death when he don't have to.

"I understand. I'll pretend not seeing nor hearing anything for tonight."

Tense in air lifting up and he could feel both ghouls relaxing.

"Thank you. Ah, please take these takoyaki. They're better eaten by someone who could actually enjoy it."

The older ghoul bow to him, give him his takoyaki, and walk past him.

"Make sure you keep your end of promise too."

The older ghoul offer his hand to the younger ghoul, who excitedly take it.

"Don't worry. We will."

Said the elder ghoul as he lead the younger one back to the festival. The younger one looking back towards him and wave her free hand.

"Bye-bye mister meanie investigator."

Amon watching them silently until their form disappear in the crowd. Daughter Fueguchi's parting word stuck in his head. Her voice is so soft and held no malice. Her word held deep sadness and acceptance. She has not forgiven him. Yet she forgive his existence as it doesn't matter anymore.

She looks and sounds like a nice girl.

Eyepatch's word recalled back. The possibilities of the truth in his word came back to him in the form of guilt. If Fueguchi couple were really innocent, that means he killed that young girl's parents. That means he IS the murderer.

He grit his teeth in frustration. He can't let the words of a mere ghoul got into him. There's nothing to prove his claim... just like there's nothing to deny it.

Amon sighted and walks back to the festival. He will forget it for now. He did promise to pretend that he see and hear nothing for tonight.

* * *

"Kaneki!"

"Kaneki-san!"

"Kaneki-kun!"

The rest of Kaneki's group called out to him.

"Why are you guys all here?"

"Tsukiyama saw you being followed by that guy. Hinami said she recognize him an investigator, so we got worried and followed you around."

Banjou hastily explain. Kaneki lower his gaze to their hands. Some of them holding food or toys, but not many.

"Sorry Kaneki-san. We were so worried of you that we forget to get the rest of the items. Should we get it now?"

Sante slowly explained, maybe a bit ashamed. Kaneki shake his head.

"No, I think they won't do anything tonight. But you guys better buy some festival mask for precaution."

They walk to the mask stall and buy mask for the rest of them. Banjou and the trio just pick one randomly for each of them while Tsukiyama insist on getting the same fox mask as Kaneki which Kaneki protest so strongly. But Tsukiyama still wins anyway since he's the one who pay. Tsukiyama won't let this rare chance of getting a pair look with Kaneki away after all.

"Then, shall we go home?"

Tsukiyama offer his hand to Kaneki in gentlemanly manner. Kaneki stares at the hand for a moment and looking straight again without any intention to take the hand.

"Actually, now that I kind of sure they won't do anything, we should stay a bit more to watch fireworks. There's not so many people on the main shrine anyway. And the view is good there. We should head there for now."

"You trust him?"

Hinami glanced up to Kaneki. Her festival mask eyes glittering with a strong lantern light.

"I am."

Kaneki held his hand to Hinami who reluctantly take it. They walk to the shrine in a comfortable silence. For a moment Kaneki could swear he saw a blur of a familiar blonde among the crowd but shrug it as a hallucination of his longing. How good would it be if Hide is here.

* * *

Amon keep walking around the festival in search of his separated comrades while eating his taiyaki and holding takoyaki that Eyepatch has given him. Not too long after, he manage to spot Goori on the crowd. Just before he reach her, he hear a voice from his side.

"Amon Koutarou. Where did you go?"

He turn his head to the source. A professional looking woman with a braid adorning her fair blond hair. She wear a pale yellow yukata and hold several serving of yakisoba. His subordinate, Rank 2 Investigator Mado Akira.

"I... got lost"

"And decide to buy yourself some snacks. Not that I mind. By the way I didn't buy your share."

Akira gesturing towards the stack of yakisoba she holds.

"Not that I want it. You made them spicy anyway."

Amon take some box from her and walk toward the group followed by Akira.

"Amon-san! Akira-san!"

A hand flailing around for their attention. Not to long after, a young blonde young man appeared. Unlike Akira's fair blond hair, the young man's hair is rather a dirty blonde.

"Nagachika, you're late."

Akira scold the young man, Assistant Investigator Nagachika Hideyoshi.

"Sorry. Tried to invite Kaneki but his phone was off. I think I saw him in the crowd, so I went to search for him. But no luck. Maybe it was only my imagination."

It's not a secret among the investigator working in 20th ward that Nagachika work for CCG to search for his missing friend. Turns out that friend of his is taking care of his friend's recently orphaned daughter. He stays in CCG even after his friend came back.

They tried to meet this Kaneki after the name of Kanou Akihiro appears in Binge Eater case, but keep missing him for a suspiciously varied reason. So far only Nagachika manage to contact him. If an occasional text message and catching a glimpse of him could be called one.

Based on the rough explanation from Nagachika about that friend of his added with the information they got from raiding Kanou's lab, it was suggested that the centipede monster is an actual human-turned-ghoul, who is Kaneki Ken. Of course they have not tell Nagachika about this cruel possibility yet.

"That guy sure know how to disappear completely. He's already missing for the past week. Again."

While rarely meet in person, Kaneki always give a hint to Nagachika that he's still around from time to time. This time he just completely disappear again. Just like half year ago when he said he began to take care of his friend's daughter. His disappearance this time was just in time after the raid to Kanou's lab.

Amon about to say that he meet someone who he believe is Kaneki Ken after seeing Nagachika's disappointed look. But decide against it since he did promise to pretend that he saw nothing.

And the fireworks shot into the night sky.

A loud explosion sound. Followed by one, two others.

Brilliant lights erupted into the dark starless sky.

"Good thing that you made it for the fireworks."

Akira comment. Nagachika stares to the sky and smile solemnly.

"We used to watch fireworks together."

Amon and Akira stares at their assistant. His usually bright eyes are a bit clouded.

"Really sad huh? Two guys watching fireworks together."

"Naga…"

"But again, he'll show up when things had calmed down. I just hope he won't ignore me again this time."

Amon feel the guilt again. If, by any means, if Nagachika's friend is really the ghoul eyepatch, he won't have any idea what to think. On one side, he was a human who is a victim of Kanou's inhuman experiment. On other side, he is a ghoul who choose to live as one on his own free will. If he has to accept what is the current him, of course it will be illogical if he keep deny the rest of the ghoul for the same reason. If he has to accept the being known as ghoul, he also has to accept the fact that he has murdered the parents of a innocent young girl.

"I wonder if he see this too."

Nagachika muses.

* * *

"Big brother, it's so pretty."

Hinami remove her mask so she can see the fireworks clearly. The other followed her example soon after. They don't need the mask anymore as they stand in the main shrine on top of the hill. The building itself is pretty far ahead from the festival ground in the entrance, so there's barely anyone around to see their face.

"Hey, big brother. How could the explosion produce such a pretty light? Isn't explosions usually dangerous?"

Kaneki smile at Hinami's antics. She really want to know a lot of thing. Which is a good thing from Kaneki's perspective even though he found himself not being able to answer some of her question which make him a bit sad.

"It is dangerous, Hinami-chan. There's a reason why a big fireworks like this need to be launched by an authorized person. As for the light, they are an actual fire just like in the name. Just not strong enough to burn anything in the ground. The color comes from some mix of chemical substance which I don't know the detail of which substance produce what color. As for the shape… I guess it's the secret of the artist."

Kaneki put one finger in front of his lips to emphasize the word of secret. Hinami 'oooh'-ed excitedly. And they watch the rest of the colorful light peacefully.

"Ah, it's ended."

Banjou muttered, a bit disappointed as this is the first experience to most of them.

"Yes it is."

Kaneki stand up from where he sat at the patch of grass and dusted some dirt on his yukata.

"Let's go home."

Kaneki helps Hinami to stand up and address all of them. They put on their mask again and walk down the hill.

"You know, I think I'll try to talk with Hide again."

Kaneki began. The rest of his group looking at him, waiting for him to continue.

"But it would mean I have to confront the doves too. I'll talk with Yoshimura-san about this. I want to work something out with the doves. But it would also mean that I'll risk the rest of you guys too."

Kaneki walk ahead from them and stop after they're a few steps ahead. He hastily turn around and face all of them.

"I know this is really selfish. But, can I?"

Kaneki look straight at them. While he know most of them doesn't have a place on society to risk, he definitely know that his choice could cost Tsukiyama his whole fortune. He did doubt Tsukiyama and tends to avoid him as much as he can, but he is not cruel enough to put the man who already did so much for him into an even more distress.

"Of course it is."

Banjou is the first one to respond.

"I'm glad big brother want to make up with Hide-san."

Hinami smiles. Tsukiyama is a bit taken aback. This is the first time Kaneki act like his opinion matter. Not just his money, power, nor Chie's information. But his personal opinion. Honestly, he don't want him to be close with the doves, but going against it now will disappoint Kaneki more. He'll agree for now and plan a fallback for when it's going bad. He'll manage as long as Kaneki lives.

"Everything for you, mon chère."

Kaneki close his eyes and smile softly. A smile they rarely see nowadays.

"Thank you."

He turn back to the road, but still not walking.

"We should go back now. It's getting late."

And he start walking. The other following behind him in a comfortable silence. After walking for a while, Kaneki start to speak again.

"Um, Tsukiyama-san? Do you want to stop by for tonight? It's already pretty late after all."

He still walk in the same pace, and didn't turn around as he speak. So they keep walking. Tsukiyama is surprised for a moment. Kaneki never let him stay in the house. But thinking about his earlier request, he guess that now is about the time HIS Kaneki start opening up.

"Of course, gladly. I'll be sure to make you stay warm."

Kaneki jolt for a split second and turn toward Tsukiyama.

"No way! You're staying in the guest room!"

Kaneki huffed and increase his walking pace. Hinami giggled and run after him. Tsukiyama look a bit disappointed for a moment, but smile nevertheless. Banjou breath out a pleasant sigh and chase after Kaneki, followed by the trio.

In spite of his "outburst", Kaneki is having a pleasant mood. He got a nice friends and manage to talk to that Investigator without any blood spilling. He sure he could work something out with Hide. Hide won't mind as long as he apologize properly.

_Maybe, this world is not that mistaken after all._

* * *

**A/N **If you get any romantic hint, it's not (intentional anyway). I really want to make Amon and Hinami meet even for a moment. Actually I want to put in a scene where Hide eat Amon's Takoyaki (which he get from Kaneki and uneaten) and find it's spicy which makes Akira suspicious but I missed the opportunity... sob. And even though this is AU, it follow the original event, so we pretty much know how it ended up. I'll think whichever I'll write more or not while lamenting Digimon Adventure tri.


	4. Summer: Birthday

No beta like always. Be prepared for a lot of mistake. Please do tell me if you found any.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters in any way.

* * *

**ー Summer ****ー**

**Birthday**

**Summary: **It's Touka's birthday. Take place before Yukata.

**Featured Character: **Kirishima Touka, Kosaka Yoriko

* * *

It's almost 3 months since he came back. Kaneki Ken looks a lot happier compared to when they save him from 11th ward almost half a year before. Maybe even so compared to when he first turned into a half-ghoul. He smiles, he laugh, he jokes, he mads, and he worries. But it's only in the front. At least that is how Kirishima Touka sees him.

That's why she tried to confront him. He admitted that he still chasing after Kanou and just got his trail after visiting Kanou's General Hospital. She hated it. Because it's not a mere visit. Because he's also planning to kidnap the nurse for information regarding Kanou's whereabout. Or so she heard. It's a good thing for her that he failed to do so. And she felt guilty about it.

Some day after, he ask Yoshimura to have some day off for "personal business" and she have a rough idea where he went.

Today he come to Anteiku for work. Touka confront him again and demand some answer. He doesn't have to, but he decide to tell her. Because he knows, she's worried. And she'll punch him in the face if he doesn't let her to worry him. As hard to admit as it seems, she worries about him. And it won't change whichever he tell her or not. It will be worst if he keeps quiet and he knows it. He's smart just like that.

Maybe this is how Hinami feels. Touka knows. She knows what made her so worried. She knows that she can do nothing about it. She knows that it's partly her fault. Because she said a lot of irresponsible thing to him. She told him to get rid of that solemn face. She told him to stop being gloomy. She told him to stop always looking so pitiful. So he did and she regret it. She's a kid. A kid who knows nothing what her words worth of.

He smiles just like she ask him to. He smiles while telling her that he did massacre the whole ghoul restaurant save for Madame A who manage to get away. And it makes her heart sank. It's not what she hoped. She just want everything to be back like they were in the beginning. He's really kind. He's so kind towards everyone, not only his friends. But now he's only kind towards those who close to him. Pretend to be kind to those who he don't know. And merciless towards those whom he considered his enemy.

In the end she decide to pretend too. Pretend to see nothing. Pretend to know nothing. As long as he's here, smiling with the rest of them, that's enough. That way she too can pretend that everything is alright. He's already so rotten in the inside. Rotten by his own insanity. Maybe she should rot too. Rot by her own ignorance which she choose to embrace.

The day after, she woke up with a pleasant feeling. It's so pleasantly wrong. Maybe she's losing it too. She put her school uniform and go to school like always. She's almost late when she arrived at Kiyomi High. The bell rang when she put her hand in the door handle of her class.

The lesson going on slowly. The teacher yelled at Yoriko once because she keep trying to get Touka's attention instead of listening to the lesson properly. Touka is too detached to notice her. She promise her to talk on the lunch break. And the lesson go on.

When lunch break come, she's still too detached that she didn't notice when Yoriko stands before her.

"Touka-chan!"

"Wha! Yoriko…"

Touka yelped in surprise and glad to see it's only Yoriko. Glad that she didn't release her kagune to deal with whatever it is.

"Geez, you're spacing out too much. I bet you didn't even listen to the whole lesson either. I'm surprised that none of those teacher realized it."

Yoriko pulled a chair and sit in front of Touka.

"Sorry. There's a lot of thing on my mind recently. I guess I'm just tired."

"Maybe you should skip today group study and rest. You look awful."

"No need. I still need to finish my extra assignment anyway. Well, I'm going off early though. The manager told me to come today even though it's not my shift."

Yoriko opened her mouth and close it again. She look determined and leaned towards Touka.

"May I come too?"

Touka taken aback by Yoriko's reply. The fact that Yoshimura especially called her outside her shift means that whatever he need her for is really important. And might be related to ghouls.

"Just a bit while is okay!"

It seems that Yoriko won't budge. At least not without making her disappointed and suspicious.

"Okay, just a bit. The manager might want me to do something important."

"Yes. I'm sure it's really important."

Touka is doubting her ears. Did Yoriko know?

"You know?"

"Yes, I think I know. In fact, I'm surprised that you don't."

"I see."

And then they eat in silence. Yoriko seems really happy. Touka's mind is complete mess during the rest of class.

She knows.

Yoriko knows.

And she has to silence her.

She told Kaneki that she'll kill Hide if he know.

It's unfair for her to keep Yoriko.

It might put all of them in danger.

Why now?

Kaneki and Hinami just found their small fragment of peace.

But Yoriko is not that kind of person.

She is not.

Right?

She looks happy.

Happy of what?

Finally found a reason to get rid of her?

No way.

Yoriko would not do that.

She's sure of it.

But how about her parents?

Her other friends?

What if she unconsciously blurt everything out?

What if she's interrogated?

Yoriko will protect her. She knows it.

But what if she's tortured?

Just like Jason?

Just like Kaneki?

What if…

"TOUKA-CHAN!"

Touka snapped out of her mind and blink at Yoriko who stands in front of her. Did lunch break just over?

"Class was over 5 minutes ago you know? You just keep spacing out again. If not worse. Weren't you say that you have to study hard for university? Come on, we have group study in library after this. You have to go early, right? So it's best for you to come early too!"

"Eh? Um… yeah. Let's go."

The group study ended up… considered well. They don't make that much progress, but progress is a progress. One of the guy ask which university Touka aiming to which she answer Kamii University, Faculty of Science. And they joke how she will fail and she tell them that she'll ask the bastard to leak some question for her. What she don't tell them is that she still has another bastard if the first bastard is not enough to let her pass.

Touka and Yoriko excuse themselves earlier and head towards Anteiku. Yoriko is still not showing any suspicious move.

She will watch and see what Yoriko will do for now.

"Onii-chan! Hurry up! We're late!"

"Don't go running around, Hinami-chan! It's dangerous! And you could ruin both your hair and dress. And what will everyone think if we arrive drenched with sweat?"

"Uh… okay. But we're late…"

Kaneki and Hinami walk across the street of 20th ward. They supposed to reach Anteiku about 30 minutes before the promised time, but the train from 6th ward was delayed because a slight trouble on the other station which is extremely rare to happen. Today of all day. It's almost the promised time, but they just step out from the train. They will surely be late.

Kaneki doesn't have any shift today, but the manager, Yoshimura called him in because today is a special day. So he brought Hinami along. Banjou and the others is making sure that Tsukiyama didn't come along. It's better that he doesn't come today.

Kaneki walks beside Hinami who looks impatient to reach Anteiku. Kaneki sighed and look around the crowd absentmindedly.

"Hinami-chan."

Kaneki softly called Hinami.

"Since we're late anyway, want to go to that store for a bit and get something?"

Kaneki point to one of the stores. Hinami followed his finger to find an accessory store that sell a lot of thing like bracelet, phone strap, keychain, sticker, and other. Hinami finally understand what he meant and nod eagerly.

Then they entered the store.

Touka and Yoriko arrived at Anteiku faster than they imagined. Touka already alerted Yoshimura that Yoriko is tagging along. And he said it's okay. But still she can't loosen her guard.

Touka was about to open the door when she see that the sign is flipped to 'Closed'.

_It's weird. The sun is still not set and they're already closing._

Touka shrugged and opened the door.

And a loud popping noise echoed.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Touka sees most of the staff and regulars inside the shop. All shouting a same phrase.

"Eh? What?"

Touka is dumbfounded at the sudden exclamation. Irimi walk closer to them at an amazing pace considered that she actually walks.

"You're Yoriko, right? Considered from Touka's reaction earlier, it seems you're doing a good job at keeping it a secret."

Irimi put a hand at Yoriko's shoulder. Yoriko herself look unusually proud of herself.

"Wait, Yoriko? Since when…?"

"Since when we coordinated with her? We're not."

Irimi laughed softly at Touka.

"Well, Touka-chan said that she's getting called today of all day even though it's not her shift. And it looks pretty urgent. So I just kind of guess it. Actually I'm surprised that Touka-chan didn't already realized it."

Yoriko smiled at her friend who is still gawked.

"Is it that obvious?"

Koma called out from behind Irimi.

"Actually, yes."

Yoriko answered while scratching her cheek.

"Right? I told you so. It's a good thing that she didn't realized."

Irimi raise both of her hand and sighed towards Koma. Looks like it's Koma's idea.

"That shitty rabbit is just too stupid to realize."

Nishiki stepped forward and looking down at Touka.

"What did you just say, shitty Nishiki? I'm just preoccupied, that's all."

"Yes, she keep spacing out for the whole day. I do hope that she could notice me more."

Yoriko sigh mockingly.

"So, who are you thinking about? It's him. It's him, right? You can't lie to this devil ape."

"No." Touka paused. "Well, maybe half… no. One-third of the time."

Touka excuses. She looks aside and find Yoriko gawking in her place.

"Hi…. hi-hi-hi-hi-HIM!?"

Yoriko spins her head around to find this 'him'.

"Well, he's still not here. I heard the train was delayed."

Irimi, who is already back serving the customer, replied.

"Oh, okay. By the way, Touka-chan. Here. Your present."

Yoriko hand Touka her paperbag. Touka accept the bag and stare at it for a moment. She didn't realized that her friend was carrying an extra luggage. Maybe she did spaced out that bad.

"May I open it?"

"Please do!"

Touka opened the package and pulls out a dark blue scarf with a bit white part at both end. Inside the white part are several light blue rabbit pattern.

"I-I'm sorry for giving you scarf even though it's still summer. I remember that you don't like sweets. But I want to make something special for you. So... so..."

Yoriko is looking everywhere but Touka. She's clearly nervous.

"Thank you. I'll cherish it."

Yoriko looks really happy when she said that.

"The moods look good. Should we hand our present too?"

Koma stepped aside and let the manager, Yoshimura come to front and hand Touka the present.

"An album?"

"Yes, we discussed what would we give to you. And everyone agreed on an album. Or rather, memories."

"Memories…"

Touka flipped a few first page of the album. There's Ayato when they're younger. She flip it around again and found one of photo when Kaneki was just a simple customer. Fitting in the background. She flip it again some more and found the one from when Kaneki just joined them. And one again with Nishiki.

"Actually we thought about making some handcraft, but there's only a few of us who could actually do it so it cannot be a present from all of us. So we decided on an album. So you could remember that our memories will always be with you even if we could not."

Touka keep staring at the album. It should be a tear jerker touching scene. She is happy. Very very happy. But why? It seems like if the album is a messenger of a bad omen.

"Well, I agreed on album too since this rabbit is so stupid that she could forget such a simple thing."

Nishiki being the usual mean Nishiki just have to ruin the moment with some mean comment.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAID!? YOU DAMN SHIT!"

Touka put the album on a nearby table and stomped towards Nishiki. Irimi pick up the album and flipped it to some empty page in front of Yoriko.

"There's still a lot of empty space. You should pitch up some too."

"Can I?"

"Of course, the more the merrier."

While Irimi having a good chat with Yoriko, Touka is bickering with Nishiki with Roma in the middle, Yoshimura is back with another customer, and left Koma who rub his chin in a mock charismatic manner while oversee the shop.

"Now we're done with all of those speech. Even though that some person is still not here."

Everyone on the shop stopped whatever they're doing and looking around.

"Well, where the hell is that fucking bastard taking train to?"

Touka huffed. Some people start to sniffle at her reaction.

"He should be arrived shortly."

Yoshimura calmly told her. But it's not the case of the blonde girl.

"Oh, yeah. Touka's boyfriend is coming!"

Every eyes turned to Yoriko.

"Boy…?"

"I should go home now. It's not good to keep bothering her after all."

Yoriko gathered her belonging and walk to the door.

"Wait, Yori…"

"I'll have the pictures all sorted and printed by next week. Everyone should give them some privacy too, okay?"

Yoriko opened the door and stepped outside.

"Yori…"

Touka tried to call her again, but this time her voice drowned by a chorus of "Yes ma'am!"

"Have fun!"

And Yoriko is gone.

"I swear that girl is too damn fast for a non-athlete human."

A roar of laughter erupted from the cafe.

"The almighty lady Kirishima just got pwned by a human girl!"

"That human girl sure is interesting."

Touka got red and yelled back.

"Touch her and I'll make sure you can't touch anything again!"

Touka know how brash some of these guys could be when they set an eye on a human. She can't let them do anything to Yoriko.

"No way! We still want to see that human girl around and kicking lady Kirishima's fine ass anytime. Personally I don't even mind protecting her if it means I can see it again!"

One of the man yelled and followed by another roar of laugher.

Touka was about yell back again when the door bell chimed and one white haired head peeked in.

"Did we miss the party?"

Said Kaneki from the crack of the door. Still not dare to step in.

"Yo, Kaneki! You just missed the main event!"

One of the customer said. By then most of them already calmed down.

"Bastard! Where the hell did you run off to!?"

Kaneki opened the door properly and stepped in.

"Well, you see…"

If Touka is not so mad from being embarrassed, she would notice that Kaneki didn't scratch his cheek or put his hand on his chin like he used to. Instead, he keep both of his hand behind his back.

"Big Sister Touka!"

Hinami peeked from behind Kaneki.

"Hi-Hinami?"

Touka calmed down in an instant. She could not be mad in front of Hinami. In fact she already regretting on saying such bad language in her presence. Well, it's that bastard Kaneki's fault though.

"Fufu... You see…"

Hinami stepped aside and pull the thing Kaneki keep hidden behind him.

"TADAAAA!"

Hinami pulled a white bunny plushie with droopy ears, black small top hat which tied with a ribbon below it's head, and black blouse with some white frills around the cuff. The face is a simple two beady black eyes and a nose, without any mouth. On its left hand is fitted another rabbit keychain with a headband.

Touka blankly accepted the doll.

"An extra present from us~! Actually big brother just want to get a keychain for a good luck charm, but we see this section with a lot of plushie!"

"But it seems we took too much time choosing."

Keychain? For a good luck charm?

"puh…"

Touka sniffle a laugher.

That bastard really worried about her exam that much? That shit Nishiki too. He insult her because she keep staring at the album so grimly. Did he tried to cheer her up? And those damn bastards. Even with all of the insults, they say they won't touch Yoriko. Because they know Yoriko is a precious friend of her? And this shitty album. Really?

"Ahaha…"

"Touka-chan?"

Touka exhaled a pleasant sigh and hug the doll loosely in front of her chest.

"Thank you."

Touka smiled one of her most earnest smile. One which she rarely show.

"All of you. Really."

She hug the doll tighter.

"Thanks."

She smiles. All of them smiles. All of those negative thinking she had feels really stupid now. They keep on partying until a few hours after. There's a lot more laughing, teasing, bickering, and fights. But it's okay. Because all of those thing give color to her blood red world. If only Ayato was here. If only both her parents are here. But still…

_I haven't feel this happy for a long time. It feels like nothing could go wrong from this point on._

_**Right?**_

* * *

**A/N** Happy Birthday, Touka-chan! I'm sorry it turns out too angsty. Actually there's an insert pic to remedy that a bit, but doesn't allow picture. So it's only on AO3 and tumblr. Once again, Happy Birthday for Touka-chan~!


	5. Memories: Dream

No beta like always. Be prepared for a lot of mistake. Please do tell me if you found any.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters in any way.

* * *

**ー Memories****ー**

**Dream**

**Summary: **There's a future career survey form from school. Hide ask Kaneki to stick with his rambling. Take place during their High School days.

**Featured Character: **Kaneki Ken, Nagachika Hideyoshi

* * *

"We'll begin the homeroom now. I'll check presence. Tanaka!"

"Yes."

"Nakajima!"

"Here."

"Kitagawa!"

"Here."

Another day, another class has started. Another boring class in another boring day. Kaneki Ken sat in his chair absentmindedly. He really want to graduate from this school as soon as possible so he can get away from that household. The more he wait for that day to come, the time past more and more slowly. He can do something about his outside class time since he can simply hang with Hide or read book. But he can't do neither in class since he can risk the chance of having to stay here for another year.

"Kaneki!"

"Yes!"

Kaneki get back to his own mind after the teacher took his presence. Since he can't read one of his novels here, he decide to read some textbook. The teacher should not be mad if he study, right? He have to take an entrance exam for university soon anyway.

"By the way, it's already the time for you kids to decide what will you do from now on. I bet most of you plan to go to the college, but you should think a major that is relevant to your future plan. So, this is an survey to help you decide. It's simple, just write what you want to do in your life and give it back to me. Now, please distribute it."

Kaneki stares at his form blankly. He never think about this before. All he want to do now are to read book, hang with Hide, and graduate from this school. The question keep bothering his mind for the rest of the class. Before he realized, the class is already ended for the day. He didn't join any club, nor was Hide. He think about asking Hide to hang out with him, but they just hang out until night yesterday. He can't bother Hide too much just because he doesn't want to go home. Maybe he'll hang around in a public or school library for today.

"Ka~ ne~ ki~"

A sing-song voice called him. A boy with blonde hair and school uniform swinging his bag around to get his attention. A typical overact from his best friend, Nagachika Hideyoshi.

"What is it, Hide? And don't swing your bag around. It's dangerous."

"You miss me, right? Tell me you miss me."

Hide swing hands to both side and pull it back to his chest in a dramatic way. To back his words, Hide really didn't show up this morning nor on the break time like he always do, which make Kaneki miss him a little. But not this much.

"Am not. We just met yesterday. And what happened? You didn't show up during this morning and lunch break. And you are unusually hyper."

Hide drop his dramatic act and laugh slyly.

"Fufufu I knew you will ask that. Actually, you see..."

Hide pull something from his bag and shove it Kaneki's face.

"TAAADAAAA!"

Hide pull the object from Kaneki's face so he can see it better. It's a foreign CD case.

"This baby just arrived this morning! Guess the rest!"

Hide excitedly said and pull his 'baby' for a thwirl. Kaneki sigh and speak with a tired tone on his voice, not even tried to think about his answer.

"You got so excited checking that 'baby' of yours and ended up late. On top of that you forgot to bring your lunch so you have to fight for food in that crowded cafeteria until the end of lunch break. It's about the time for you to somber down a little, you know."

"As expected from Kaneki-san~! And you got to lit up a lot, dude. Anyway, wanna hang out at my place today? I need someone to listen my rambling for that cursed being."

Hide lazily wave his survey form to the side. Kaneki realized that Hide is not the type to give so much thought to that kind of survey. Hide typically will only toss that aside until the moment they have to give it back and write something convenience for him at the time. On the other side, Kaneki is. Hide ask him to hang around so he can have someone to talk to. A very typical tactic coming from Hide.

"Okay"

Kaneki walk past Hide and smile.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

Kaneki turn back to see Hide's innocent look. His face is oblivious and his answer didn't miss any beat.

Too perfect.

"Nothing."

Kaneki smiled and turn his back on Hide again. He should know that Hide won't ever admit that to him.

"We should go to your place quickly. It's about to rain."

Hide grinned and pat Kaneki's shoulder.

"That call for a race. Ready, go!"

Hide didn't wait for Kaneki's respond and went full sprint. He know Kaneki will arrives to his house sooner or later.

"Wait, Hide! Don't run it's dange…"

Too late. Hide is already outside of earshot. Kaneki let a big sigh out and run after Hide.

Kaneki, by any means, is not a sprinter. Nor he is a slowpoke. He's pretty average when it comes to sport. Good enough to pass his class with a little effort, bad enough to be benched in the actual club activity. So it is to be expected when he arrived at Nagachika household door, about 15 minutes after the resident young master arrived, lacking breath for having run all the way from the school to Hide's house. At least he didn't pass out somewhere in the middle of street.

"You're late. Here, take a breath and relax. Don't let my mom think I'm bullying you."

"You-you are… gah. so cruel… It's pretty far you know…"

"There. There."

Hide gently pat his back to ease his breathing.

"But man… you should really toughen up a little. And you still need to lit up a lot."

Hide know precisely when to tease or not to tease Kaneki. And based on that knowledge of his, this is a good time to tease him. Even though the said boy is currently in his knees, barely breathing.

"And get a girlfriend…"

Whisper Hide. Kaneki's face lit up into a bright red color as he stand up quickly. His mouth open and close trying to form a word.

"Why don't you get one yourself?"

His voice is unusually higher and Hide lean towards the door of his home trying to hold his laughter.

"Can we just get in and start dealing with the survey?"

"Okay, okay. I did expect you to literally lit up, but it's still funny."

Hide opened his door and lead Kaneki inside. Hide himself still trying to recover from his laughter while Kaneki just pout and look anywhere but Hide as his form of sulking.

"Hideyoshi, what take you so long to come in? And you're teasing Kaneki-kun again."

Hide's mom called out from the backyard. Probably hanging some wet clothes.

"Am not. This guy just took too long to arrive."

Hide stop and point to Kaneki to make his point even if his mom can't see him.

"That means you did."

The voice sounds closer. A few seconds later, Hide's mom appeared from inside while tying her apron. Perhaps preparing dinner is her next agenda.

"Good evening, auntie."

Kaneki greet her politely.

"Good evening, Kaneki-kun. Have a good time, okay? I do hope that my son could learn one or two things from you."

Hide's mom smiled warmly when she greet Kaneki, but soon turn into a tired sigh when she mention about his son. She often did that to tease Hide. Like Hide, she know Kaneki's circumstance through a various source and gossips but keep quiet about it. She always show her concern through action, not word.

"No no. It's this guy that have a few things to learn from me, not the other way around."

"Please don't. It will be too hot around. By the way, Kaneki-kun. What do you want to eat for dinner?"

Hide's mom step into kitchen as she ask. Kaneki is startled. It is a common occurrence that Hide's mom would count him in for dinner like it's the most obvious thing in the world, but Kaneki still hesitating. He still can't get used to being treated kindly even though it's already been years ever since he visited Nagachika household for the first time.

"Um… I don't… I mean, you don't have to."

Kaneki fidgeting with the strap of his bag. Afraid to accept the offer, but can't reject it either.

"Hamburger then."

"What!? You didn't ask what I want to eat!"

"You just got late this morning because of that package of yours."

"Ugh."

"Okay, boys. Now just go upstairs and do whatever you have to do."

"'kay…"

Hide dejectedly say while climbing the stairs. Kaneki look one last glance to the kitchen area before following Hide into his room. Despite of Hide's disappointed look, he didn't tease Kaneki about it like he always do. He know it's a sensitive subject for that best friend of his, and he won't hear the end of Kaneki's apologies if he do anyway.

Once they seated in the floor, Kaneki pulled out his form from his bag which is neatly folded in two and tucked inside a book so it won't get crumpled. Hide following suit after a short rummaging on his bag before he finally pulled out his badly crumpled form. Hide took a glance at Kaneki's neat form and then to his own crumpled one before laughing softly at Kaneki's tired sigh. A very typical occurrence coming from them.

It took them a while to straighten Hide's form so it will at least can be written on. They got over most of the field quickly, but there's that one cursed question that brought them in that room together.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

They will go into college, that is sure. But they know better than to write it since both of them clearly understand that going into college is not something they want to achieve. It is the mean to achieve what they dreamt of. Not they actually think that much when deciding what major they applied to. Kaneki being Kaneki just want to read book. And Hide just pick one off that have wide choice of career and sounded kinda interesting.

"Hey, Kaneki. What can you do with Japanese Literature degree? You're taking that major, right?"

"There's actually a lot. The most common one are on journalism, publishing, or teaching."

Kaneki explained slowly while fishing any knowledge that he has about the degree and what it worth off. Hide pulled out three finger in front of Kaneki and lowered his ring finger so it becomes two.

"Yeah, journalism is out."

"What!? Why?"

Kaneki protested. In response, Hide just lowered another finger instead of answering.

"So is teaching."

"I said, why!?"

Kaneki protested again. And again, Hide just lowered his whole hand and laughed.

"You should be aware of your own social inability." Hide laugh mockingly. "And I'm pretty sure you're going for publishing anyway. Tell me I'm right."

Hide proudly say. He's pretty sure of his statement.

"Well… yeah. You're right."

Kaneki dejectedly said. Is he that predictable? Or is it just because it's Hide?

"What about you? You still haven't tell me what major you're taking."

"Me? I'm taking International Studies."

Hide answer lightly. Kaneki expect him to stumble a little since he doesn't seems like he decided what he want to be already.

"What? So you already decided and you didn't tell me." Kaneki pout. "Why International studies anyway?"

"It has a wide range of job opportunities that seems have a high pay. I got more time to think what kind of job I want until graduation. And it seems interesting."

_So he really hasn't decided yet._

Kaneki sweatdropped at Hide's answer. That innocent look might as well taken as a joke. But he know that Hide is serious about this.

"Anyway, I got to find a high paying job so I can support a certain someone who might as well ended up as a poor librarian all his life."

And that certain someone is sure to be Kaneki. His answer is not baseless, considering Kaneki's high school grade report. It's not bad as it's not good.

His grade used to be very good, about 90 and an occasional 100 on average for every subject. But he tone it down to about 70 or 80 and occasionally 60 ever since the thing with his aunt. After that, his aunt went from harassing him verbally him into blatantly ignoring him. Maybe that woman will keep harassing him if he keep being smart.

But his future employer doesn't know that. He could try to score better in college without his aunt, but this bad habit might be hard to stop.

But he will try anyway. He have to.

"Well, that means I have to try harder and got a well paying job since a certain someone might end up having a hard life with odd jobs and part times all his life."

Kaneki smugly countered. Hide puffed his cheek and throw a pillow at Kaneki, who manage to react at time and shield himself from the fluffy projectile.

"Joke aside, what do you want to write in your form? I could write an editor and it will make a lot of sense. But if you put some weird thing in your survey, you might ended up being called in for some career counseling, you know."

Which is not something both of them want to do. Kaneki is not comfortable, if not bothered, talking about himself to some stranger he doesn't completely trust. Hide being Hide just find counseling as bothersome and not worth of time.

"Who cares. I'll bullshit through them later. More than that, wanna listen to my new baby? You want to, right?" Hide leaning close to Kaneki holding his new CD.

_You're contradicting yourself. _Kaneki though.

Hide played the music, they talk about some random things. A few round of game following after hours of chat.

Soon, the sun disappear and Hide's mom call them down for dinner. The dinner feel warm in Kaneki's heart. Hide send his off until halfway, since walking with him all the way to Asaoka's household never been a good idea. Kaneki part with Hide, smile in his face.

The door to Asaoka's house is in front of him. His smile disappear behind the neutral mask. He silently went in and go straight to his room. He put down his mask once he's alone.

"_... so I can support a certain someone who might as well ended up as a poor librarian all his life"_

Smile emerged into his face once again.

It may be a joke, but the way Hide already put Kaneki as a part of his own future is no joke.

It's not bad.

Hide is strange. He's so loud-mouthed. He always seems so simple. And yet, his words have a lot of meaning. His action always perfectly calculated.

He never been so honest.

It was always so he won't hurt Kaneki's already so damaged heart. Faking his worries with selfishness. Putting a self-centered mask while giving his best for Kaneki. So genuine yet so fake.

_Or maybe he's just embarrassed._

Kaneki chuckled a bit at the image of embarrassed Hide.

_No way. He'll make fun of me before I got a chance to embarrass him._

Kaneki start to doze off. He considering to take a bath before he heard Asaoka's family laughter.

He decide not to. He can do it tomorrow morning.

This is the house where he's not allowed to be happy.

Kenki closed his eyes.

At least he's still allowed to be happy within his dream.

He just have to bear it until graduation.

Then he can move out from this hell and do as he wish.

He can watch TV or movies with speaker on. He can laugh over a book or joke Hide send him at late night. He can take bath anytime he want. He can cook his own food.

… He can invite Hide over to his place.

He have a pleasant dream that night.

* * *

**A/N** Finally finished this one... The ending supposed to be all sweet, but I mess it up. Again. OTL


End file.
